Facebook’s parent firm has decided that any account posting such material would be restricted. They’ve stayed true to their claims as per the study’s findings. This revealed a whopping 65% drop in reach after it was displayed.
A lot of accounts in the discussion are prominent on Instagram, having a wide user base.
As per authors from Accountable Tech, five such accounts that had 13.5 million users were studied. Amongst them included Hilary Clinton and the likes. Therefore, these accounts were requested to share some analytics with the company so a change in reach could be determined.
Between a span of three months, the effects were noted. As per Meta, the restrictions are for the betterment of users. However, not everyone agreed. Many felt it was censorship and the benchmarks used for differentiating categories were not fair.
The filters used were also deemed controversial and some went as far as to call the act unjust. Remember, it’s an important year for US Politics. Therefore, such behavior was expected.
The executive director for Accountable Tech says Meta’s decision to ban political content is negative in terms of silencing people’s voices. Getting accurate data and staying informed is a right of every user. Hence, Meta is barring a person’s human rights by not allowing this.
Some discussion had to do with how a small decision by Meta could have a mega impact on its users, especially creators, and marketers who invest a lot of money and effort to sell products and services.
According to Meta, the drop in views might stem from various causes, highlighting that variations in reach are typical.
Others feel that the act is so concerning as it was limiting the reach of this material in a very systematic manner.
Meta obviously has a lot of power and by limiting certain types of content, it might be oppressing people from their human rights. Calls to end the restrictions and bans on political material were also put forward. Again, Meta is yet to pay attention.
Read next: TikTok Displays Incomplete Picture Of China’s Reality Versus Other Social Media Apps, New Study Finds
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World
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